THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



253 



county, and Mr. Welsted won it with Iiis yearling, 

 Chaplet. To accomplish this she had to beat, amongst 

 others, Mr. Coppinger's Little Wonder ; and the judges 

 were a long time wilh Little Wonder and Soubadar 

 before them, while the latter eventually became the best 

 bull of the yard. On her merits, then, Chaplet sepa- 

 rated two very superior animals finishing very close to- 

 gether, although to extend the area of Ireland's adap- 

 tability to the breed, she herself could get no higher 

 than third in her own proper class. Captain Ball beat 

 her with the handsome Recherche, and Mr. Crosbie 

 with the useful Golden Vein. The Captain matched the 

 pride of his young things with two other clever heifers, 

 and again carried away with him the Waterford challenge 

 cup. But the entry against him, reduced to a match 

 with Lord Monck, who showed two lots against one, 

 was not very formidable. 



With Jlr. Douglas out of the way, and we fancy a little 

 out of humour with his Dundalk fortunes, Mr. Christie 

 closed up with Rosette as the next best cow, and a very 

 good one, too. Queen of Beauty is useful to look at, 

 nice to touch, and profitable to keep. At a little more 

 than four years old she has bred two fine healthy calves, 

 and is now in calf again. This is the sort of shorthorn 

 Mr. Christie's brother-farmers should be taught to 

 prize. The best heifer in the next division Sir Edward 

 M'Donnel's The Twin was pretty enough in appear- 

 ance, but coarse in quality, and with only half a pedi- 

 gree to run back to. Her second was far better to put 

 your hand over ; while Lord Waterford's brace of two- 

 year-olds have not style enough about them to warrant 

 their training on to their present form. An especial 

 favourite of ours as a heifer, the late Mr, Turner's 

 Queen of Trumps, is now the property of the new Lord 

 of Curraghmore ; and she, too, has grown into a 

 coarsish, common-looking cow. Her horn has also 

 taken a wrong turn, and we could hardly fancy her the 

 beauty we once remember her. But she has done some 

 service in the herd. If not exactly grand, the show of 

 shorthorns at Cork was, we repeat, a very suggestive 

 one. It goes to assure us that, if our little sister 

 cannot quite run alone, she needs but a hand now and 

 then to help her on, and that she can do something 

 more than say " thank'ee " in returning the com- 

 pliment, 



A very notable instance of this occurred only the other 

 day. Just at the same time when Messrs. Owen and 

 Thunder and Meade were challenging each other, stride 

 for stride, for Mr. Sanday's rams at Holme- Pierrepont, 

 Messrs. Robinson and Howard were on a tour in search 

 of an Irish bull ! And the exchange was complete. As 

 the Shorthorn went out the Leicesters came in ; and 

 both sides, we trust, are satisfied. So far, however, as 

 Ireland was concerned, this kind of barter was hardly 

 required. The judges deliberately declared at Cork, on 

 Wednesday morning last, that Mr, Thunder and Mr. 

 Meade can breed better Leicester sheep in Ireland than 

 they can hire in England. In a very excellent class, 

 certainly, of shearling rams, they awarded Mr. Thunder 

 the second premium for a sheep of his own breeding ; 

 and they very highly commended an English ram, also 

 entered by Mr. Thunder, that took the second prize at 

 Canterbury, and that let at Holme- Pierrepont the week 

 previous for one hundred and eleven guineas. The third 

 prize sheep at Canterbury, let to Mr. Owen at the 

 same time for fifty-three guineas, they could see 

 nothing remarkable in, and so they passed him over. 

 In the all-aged rams they very highly commended a 

 sheep of Mr. Meade's own breeding, but they thought 

 nothing of a ram he was weak enough to hire the other 

 day for 81 guineas, and that turned out to be Mr. San- 

 day's third prize at both Warwick and Canterbury. They 

 took their "notion" of what a sheep should be in the 



shearlings, where they could not get away from a very 

 good-looking ram, especially when out, of Mr. Mon- 

 tisfort Longfield's. They awarded him all sorts of prizes. 

 He was the best of his class ; he was the best sheep in 

 the show ; and he was the best sheep bred in the county 

 of Cork — Cork again to the fore. He really was a good- 

 looking one, and to back him they put a very middling 

 one of Mr. Thunder's second, with another of Mr. 

 Longfield's very highly commended. Neither Mr. 

 Marris from Lincolnshire, nor Mr. Turner from Devon- 

 shire, nor Mr. Owen, nor Mr. Meade, nor Mr. Sanday 

 could make any stand against the now famous Castle- 

 martyr flock. In the next division one of the judges 

 would have put another of Mr. Longfield's first, and 

 they did make him third, while his ewes were at once 

 preferred to a wonderfully good lot George Turner sent 

 as companions for his Devons from Barton. And when 

 the gentle public got so far, it rested for a moment, and 

 asked, " How they had ever dared to do it ?" We are 

 very reluctantly compelled to say that we never heard 

 three gentlemen so well abused ; and when the President 

 at the dinner referred to Ireland's glorious triumph in 

 this wise, he was met by his own countrymen with 

 something more like a laugh than a cheer. The judges 

 themselves say that they went not so much for wool as 

 for good flesh ; while other people say they mistake 

 mere blubber for flesh, and so forth. The unhappy 

 trio were Mr. Barnes, at one period a pupil of Mr. 

 Torr's, but who has spent some years in Australia, and 

 is now again settled in Ireland ; Mr. Grey, a son of 

 Mr. Grey of 'Dilston, also known in Ireland as the 

 agent of Lord Derby ; and Mr. Fookes, from near 

 Blandford, who has often officiated as a judge in Eng- 

 land, but never before over long-wooUed sheep. It 

 needs scarcely to be added that the classes of Leicester 

 sheep were especially good, and that the county of Cork 

 for once scarcely needed Mr. Torr's now annual exor- 

 dium to "look well to your mutton and wool." It 

 would have been almost better had he addressed himself 

 more directly to his friends in office. 



The Cotswolds and Shropshires are more gradually 

 taking root in Ireland, and Dr. Roche has, at last, 

 beaten Mr. Beale Browne. But here, again, the awards 

 were something of an enigma. Last year Captain 

 Carroll purchased Mr. Game's first and second-prize 

 shearlings at Warwick, and as a matter of course they 

 were first and second again at Dundalk. Now, how- 

 ever, that they are grown into yet grander sheep, they 

 could get nowhere at Cork. Their owner took the first 

 prize with an older sheep, and Mr. Page the second and 

 third with two Lincolns, one of which was very fair and 

 the other very bad. Mr. Hamilton is now doing great 

 things with the Hampshire Downs; but the pure Downs 

 sent by Mr. Marris from England and Mr. Skirving 

 from Scotland do not "tell" here. Mr. Roberts, 

 who has a flock of them in Ireland, was not on this oc- 

 casion an exhibitor. 



Neither the show of pigs nor horses was rated very 

 highly. In a small entry of the former the judges re- 

 fused to award some of the prizes ; but Lord Waterford 

 sent some useful Berkshire's, and Mr. Tynte a really 

 admirable sow of the same breed. She is of great 

 length, with famous hair and flesh, and so generally 

 good as to be pronounced by one of the judges 

 " the best pig in all Ireland." Her only strik- 

 ing fault was a very long snout, that gave 

 her a rather hungry-headed look. In the small sorts 

 the Glasnevin commissioners won with a white Windsor 

 pig, which has the honour of having been bred by his 

 Royal Highness the Prince Consort. 



"The horse show, indiff"erent as it was in parts, was 

 remarkable for the high place held by the SufTolks. 

 The best cart-horse ever imported into Ireland was 



